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You are here: Home --> Forum Home --> General Forum --> Homebrewed Beer Reviews --> Old Ale (with Hickory) from Matt

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Matt
Charter Member
Normal, IL
341 Posts


Chino, that was exactly the kind of response I wanted. Incredibly helpful, seriously! If we ever exchange beer, that's the sort of feedback I'm looking for.

So sorry about the gusher man, the White Oak batch was bottle primed. Incredibly inconsistent, a lazy mistake I'll never be making again. That's totally on me. I'm hesitant to think it is an infection, like Dan mentioned. I'm not ruling it out, but I'd rather first assume responsibility.

I absolutely need to work on the appearance of this beer. It's a bit dark as it is without the aging, and it was murky and gross. I'll need to tweak the recipe a bit, I'm thinking of swapping the C60L for something a bit lighter and bready like Carastan malt. I'll also be doing a longer cold conditioning process, possibly using gelatin, to work on how it looks.

Aroma notes were spot on, right where I wanted them to be.

The carbonation really threw this beer off. I blame it for the wonderful aroma and issues with the flavor, I may keg the next batch just to have consistent carbonation on it to find that "carb" sweet spot. 

In terms of the alcohol balance, I have a theory that the oak characters are to blame. I think that wood has a very specific place on the palate, in terms of memory, and where do we taste wood and alcohol? Bourbon, whisky, liquor. I think it is prevalent in Oak, I had the same reaction you did when I first tried it. Could be totally off, but either way that is great feedback. 

I'm also hesitant to blame shipping for any sort of error. Beers get shipped all the time!

Recipe
OG: 1.090
FG: 1.025
IBUs: 54
Boil Time: 60
Mash Temp: 152F

Grains
  • Maris Otter 78%
  • Munich 10%
  • C60L 5%
  • Special Roast 3%
  • Pale Chocolate 2%
  • C120L 2%
Hops
  • Challenger @ 60 and 10
  • Fuggles @ 10 and 0
Yeast
  • London ESB
  • 5 days at 68F, 14 days at 74F
Other
  • 1 gallon white oak honeycomb, 4 weeks.
So there are definitely some changes to consider! I'd love any feedback. Maybe increase the mash temp to 155F, and then thin the beer out with Molasses or Dark Brown Sugar?

Also, could totally be what Dan said and it just needs more time. It's only about 3 months old, but I think there is absolutely some changes that need to be make to the grain bill and process, in addition to the aging time.

White Oak was my least favorite of the batch, Hickory was my favorite.




Posted 34 days ago.
Edited 34 days ago by Matt

ercousin
Charter Member
Toronto, Canada
77 Posts


I'm pretty sure matt bottle conditions. Resting the bottle on it's side could have caught some nucleation and forced CO2 to evolve out of solution and gush?




Posted 34 days ago.

Matt
Charter Member
Normal, IL
341 Posts


Ha thanks for benefit of the doubt Eric, but it's not the first gusher. The white oak batch was bottle primed, which was a lazy mistake I won't ever be making again




Posted 34 days ago.

ingoogni
nl
314 Posts


Matt,

my approach to the grist would be; a 100% MO @ 1090 has a lot of aspects of all the other malts, except for the chocolate. It has more malt sweetness than most pale malts (munich aspect), it has nuttiness (I had to look up the special roast, sounds like it is on the amber side in between an english ambermalt and a brown malt), by the sheer density of the beer a 100% MO would have some caramel tones.

My starting point in recomposing would be MO+chocolate+1. Pick the character you wan't to enhance, pick the matching malt.

For more complexity I wouldn't add more malts. Your yeast is a very nice one, you could add a second strain in the beer, keep it in the same area with 1028, or completely different WLP023.

+ the woods.

Ingo




Posted 34 days ago.

Matt
Charter Member
Normal, IL
341 Posts


Awesome feedback Ingo, blending yeasts is something I hadn't considered at all.

The grain bill is something I'll need to experiment with for sure. Maybe a one gallon of this grain bill, one with a minimalist, one with +2 malts? Could be super cool to work with! For now I love the grain bill, and I'm totally open to changing it, but a total exodus is beyond the scope of what I'm thinking. That said, I want to make the best beer possible, so if those one gallon experiments turn out that the minimalist grain bill is the best one, then I'm all for it!

I guess, in terms of your feedback, I'm just not sold that 100% MO would be just as bready/nutty as 85% MO, 5% Special Roast, 10% Munich. But I don't know. 

Love the yeast, will totally look into blending!




Posted 34 days ago.

ingoogni
nl
314 Posts


Pasteur & Hansen killed the best of beer.

Had a quick look on Old Ale @ "Shut up about ...", nice one






Posted 34 days ago.

testingapril
Charter Member
Atlanta, GA
595 Posts


MO + age results in ridiculous complexity. It's just that "age" will need to be 3+ years at least.




Posted 34 days ago.

Matt
Charter Member
Normal, IL
341 Posts


I'm totally down to do MO+Pale Chocolate+Something else + wood + age.

Maybe when I have some more space at a new place, I'll order a 5 gallon barrel, paraffin wax the hell out of it, and then do a minimalist year long Old Ale! I love that idea. I'll do a huge brew day, half of the batch goes into bottles for a few months, the other half goes into the barrel for a year.




Posted 34 days ago.

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